Hideout

In Gordon Korman's Swindle series, Griffin Bing, a resourceful middle schooler known as "The Man With The Plan," and his friends attempt to hide a dog from its vindictive former owner over a summer spent at three different camps.

The story opens in Cedarville at a birthday party for Luthor, the oversized Doberman pinscher belonging to Savannah Drysdale, a passionate animal lover. Griffin attends with his best friend, Ben Slovak, who has narcolepsy, a condition that causes him to fall asleep without warning. Ben relies on a ferret named Ferret Face to deliver wake-up nips. Their circle also includes Antonia "Pitch" Benson, a rock climber; Logan Kellerman, an aspiring actor; and Melissa Dukakis, a shy electronics expert. The party is interrupted by S. Wendell Palomino, a con man the kids call "Swindle." In a previous adventure, Swindle cheated Griffin out of a valuable baseball card and used Luthor as a guard dog before abandoning him at the pound. Savannah adopted Luthor afterward. Now Swindle claims the pound lost the paperwork proving he surrendered ownership, which means Savannah's adoption was never legally binding.

Griffin tries to trick Swindle into a recorded confession, but Swindle sees through the ruse and reveals his full intentions: He plans to exploit Luthor on the dog-show circuit, then use his fortune to ruin Griffin and his friends. A court rules in Swindle's favor, ordering the Drysdales to surrender Luthor by August 9. Griffin conceives "Operation Hideout": Savannah will attend Camp Ebony Lake as planned while Luthor is secretly smuggled along, buying time for the family's legal appeal.

The friends hide Luthor in Logan's basement, then load him into an enormous duffel bag for the bus ride. At Camp Ebony Lake in the Catskill Mountains, Luthor bursts from the cargo hold and escapes into the forest. That night, the head counselor tells a campfire legend about a hermit's old cabin down the shore, and Griffin identifies it as an ideal hideout. He and Savannah lure Luthor back and tether him there.

Darren Vader, a snitching classmate on the same bus, grows suspicious after trailing Griffin and spotting a dog biscuit in his pocket. Griffin also meets Malachi Moore, who claims to work at a research institute across the lake; Melissa, contacted at her own camp, discovers no one by that name is employed there. When Darren sneaks out alone to find Luthor, the Doberman attacks and chases him up a tree. Malachi appears with a tranquilizer gun, revealing Swindle hired him. Savannah knocks Malachi down, and the group flees to the lake in a decrepit rowboat. Malachi pursues in a motorboat, but a research submersible, the object that generations of campers mistook for a legendary lake monster, surfaces in his path and capsizes his boat. Luthor leaps into the water and tows Malachi to safety. Grateful, Malachi quits Swindle's service. Griffin, Savannah, and Luthor swim to shore under cover of a sudden rainstorm.

Recognizing Luthor is no longer safe, Griffin launches Operation Hideout: Phase Two, transporting the dog to Camp Ta-da!, a drama camp 25 miles away where Melissa and Logan are staying. They hide Luthor in the hayloft above the performance center, keeping him calm through video calls with Savannah. Melissa and Logan spot a bearded stranger prowling near the building and assume he is another of Swindle's agents, but he turns out to be Mickey Bonaventure, a famous retired actor volunteering to judge the camp's annual "Showdown" competition against rival Camp Spotlight. The real threat goes undetected: Swindle's actual agents are two bus drivers from the rival camp. During the Showdown, Melissa spots a newspaper clipping of Luthor on one driver. She and Logan rally their fellow campers to hide the partially tranquilized Luthor beneath a large rolling set piece onstage. When Luthor wakes and bursts out mid-performance, Logan improvises brilliantly around the chaos. The shy Melissa steps in to sing the finale, performing "Tomorrow" from Annie with stunning power and winning the competition. One of the dognappers grabs Luthor during the celebration, but the campers intervene, and Griffin and Savannah arrive on a passing truck to stop the second driver's pursuit.

Griffin arranges Phase Three, moving Luthor to Camp Endless Pines, where Ben and Pitch hide him on the platform of an abandoned ranger tower. Swindle's hired man, Dominic Hiller, uses a steak to lure Ferret Face away from Ben, leaving Ben's narcolepsy unchecked. While Ben sleeps, Hiller finds a photo of Luthor on Ben's phone, tranquilizes the dog, and carries him to his pickup truck. Pitch spots the abduction from a nearby ridge and drops into the moving truck's flatbed. At a remote cottage where Swindle is waiting, Pitch searches his rental SUV and finds a pedigree report identifying Luthor as an extremely rare "Koenig Doberman," a purebred variety so scarce he may be the only example in the country. She also discovers the missing pound document, signed by Swindle, proving he voluntarily surrendered ownership. This evidence could overturn the court ruling. Pitch pockets the document and disables both vehicles by cutting their wiring. Ben arrives after following the truck's tire tracks on a rusty bicycle. The two attempt to wheel the unconscious Luthor away but are forced to abandon him when Swindle and Hiller catch up on foot.

Griffin mobilizes the full team. He and Savannah escape Ebony Lake, collect Logan and Melissa, and converge on the cottage. Melissa rigs her phone as a listening device, confirming Swindle cannot get his vehicles repaired until morning. The six friends hide in the root cellar and wait for Swindle and Hiller to fall asleep, then creep upstairs to carry Luthor out. Melissa's dying phone emits a low-battery warning, waking both men. In the scuffle, Hiller swats Ferret Face across the room, and the team retreats outside without Luthor or the ferret.

Ferret Face, still inside, lands on the unconscious Luthor and delivers a wake-up nip. Luthor revives, hears Savannah screaming, and tears the cottage apart trying to reach her. Hiller quits and flees. Swindle stumbles outside just as a car arrives carrying Griffin's father. All six sets of parents have converged after their children's camps reported them missing, tracing the situation to Swindle through a local mechanic. Luthor bursts out and reunites with Savannah. Pitch presents the pound document to Savannah's parents, proving the adoption was legal. Mr. Drysdale warns Swindle that if he ever comes near any of them again, they will have him arrested for fraud. Swindle and Hiller slink away into the dark, defeated for the second time by Griffin and his team. A brief epilogue presents humorous "What I Did for My Summer Vacation" statements from each friend, with Griffin concluding that nothing is impossible with the right plan.